Phil Hubbs
No idea what the title for this cheap drug dealer action drama is, supposedly 'Hard Rush' but comes up as 'Ambushed' on IMDb. Not that it really matters though, the first of a trilogy of films starring Lundgren and Vinnie Jones that have been rolled out in 2013 from some tacky straight to DVD company. The casting in these films is pretty good amazingly, its like a collection of mini expendables with Davi, Cung Le, Billy Zane and Couture all popping up. Easy quick work and money for these guys obviously, Jones has been in tonnes of these flicks! literately tonnes! and he plays the same character every time!The plot is errr sorta about some drug dealers trying to strike it big and errrrrrrm Jones is the big boss on the block...oh geez I dunno. Its an epic muddle of characters none of which I cared about at all and I couldn't follow who was trying to double cross who. The predictable finale shoot out is so confusing I gave up, everyone shoots everyone, police, undercover agents, dealers etc...No idea what happened to Jones in all this, his character just vanishes despite lots of threatening threats to the main characters.Its not all terrible though, some of the visuals are well shot and its all been pieced together in a rather slick way. That's it though, the fights are awful, Dolph looks tired and slow whilst Jones is the boring sadistic unbeatable bad guy. The main two characters are wholly unlikeable, one is a smartass who I really wanted to see get beaten, the other is a cheap Scottish budget version of David Schwimmer! I kid you not, his name is Gianni Capaldi, Google him, the dude is a dead ringer for Schwimmer.I know these cheap action flicks are suppose to be guilty pleasure type stuff with lots of gratuitous violence and gun porn...but what went wrong here?! This film offers nothing of what I just said, maybe a bit of ass and that's it, Dolph isn't even in it much for Pete's sake! What a complete waste of time.2/10
Alexander Ross
Wasn't expecting a true masterpiece, but having taken a serious look at the cast, premise, and looks of this one, thought was gonna maybe get by the lucky film noir/thriller/murder mystery/ action genre, and, possibly get to delight myself with some sort of little gem, maybe even a cult film! Man, was i wrong? First off, the disappointment to realize that all the great genre actors i was looking forward to see in action were in just for few minutes, and, in mostly contrived roles: Dolph Lundgren looked rather stiff here, and obviously, looking like, as if he was not even completely well aware of the dreary script, and, Vinnie Jones was real bored, you could tell he was just there for the check, then, even other people like William McNamara, or Domiziano Arcangeli were badly used, and of mere, if any service, sadly. Randy Couture is more in the movie, but, maybe the role wasn't completely developed, or the footage wasn't even enough to cover anything else other than some slick, yet very shaky images of trivial violence, with wild panoramic's on actors falling dead cold in absurd, and unexplained circumstances, and, in any case he just appeared mostly disoriented, and without a real motive other than playing a sexy villain. The movie has a very poor story, made of that pulp fiction, that is not stylish or cool, but, just heavily insisted without significance, becoming a sum up of glossy, yet very gratuitous shots, framed over banal vulgarity, and some true exploitative nudity like in some of those Italian "policemen vs. gangsters" C grade flicks from the 1970's, but, without Fernando De Leo, instead, almost feeling, as if it had been filmed a decade later, with that annoying video clip's gloss, so stereotypical of late 1980's, early 1990's US most conventional action's shockers. There are 2-vaguely- main characters, however, the actors playing those parts are unfortunately quite bland, and, not all that interesting to watch for one thing, even though, one should say that they seemed to work hard to make sense of such a cheap mess, at least! All together this is basically just a very ambitious movie, completely gone awry, and, wasted, forgettable, badly directed, and paced: just some bad B movie, a bust! It is primarily truly missing indeed all of those (possible,perhaps?) opportunities, by under utilizing somewhat of a cult cast, while, instead going straight to the old cable standards, and just bringing down rotten, and all broken up, what could have (maybe) been initially a way more intriguing type of hard boiled idea, if it had been of course rightly developed, and, staged with a really more pertinent focus, since what you read about the story is again unfortunately way more promising than the ultimately very disappointing, almost total nonsense, "delivered" plot by this contrived final product! I know if i had gone to the theaters, i would have asked for my money back. Literally!
vampiri
Since I am Swedish I try to keep myself updated when it comes to my fellow Swedes' new Movies, especially Dolph Lundgren, and thus I watched this one as soon as I could.Admittedly, Dolph may have his best years behind him. Still, he has worked with most of the creme de la creme within the action genre, i.e. Brandon Lee, Stallone, Van Damme. To his defence, perhaps he is not handed the best of scripts these Days. I would gladly Watch Men of War, Rocky IV, Universal Soldier, Johnny Mnemonic, Red Scorpion again.Plot: A scarface duo try to move up the ladder. One is uncertain if he really wants to and is involved with a sweet girl and really wants to do something else. Unfortunately for them they are preyed upon by a rogue cop and hunted by the DEA.Sadly, this Movie lacks true depth. I could tell that the writer tried really hard to create depth and credibility for his characters. Instead he fails miserably and all the characters get stuck halfway. Dolphs character has an unexplored relationship with Another DEA agent, one of the bad guys (who really is the Movies hero) cannot deliver a believable characterization of a guy in torment about what to do in Life. The Dirty cop succeeds somewhat better, but the best characters, which do not have any depth to speak of, are the drug kingpin and the hero's partner.Due to this fact that the script tries too much to be a Little bit deeper than most B-Movies and lacks, as well, a really likable hero I can only hand out......4 out of 10. Dolph does not deliver, but is excused by having a minor role and the bad script. However, there are some good Points in the Movie: Randy Couture is good as the Dirty cop and the final shootout scene is pretty good as well as the photography.